Manchester has always produced big names in music, and continues to do so in recent years. Undoubtedly one of them is Samuel T Shepherd, better known as Sam Shepherd or even better known as Floating Points.
DJ, producer, label founder, and leader of a 16-piece band called Floating Points Ensemble, it was clear from his first EPs back in 2009 that Shepherd was going to put a very personal stamp on his recording career. He was classically trained in piano, something that was also apparent from his early work, as was his love of jazz.
It had been three years since Floating Points had released a solo album with jazz saxophonist Pharaoah Sanders and The London Symphony Orchestra called Promises in 2021. That last solo work was the brilliant and varied album Crush, which was released in 2019.
Vocoder is the opening track of this year 2022 for Sam Shepherd, and it’s 7.35 minutes of pure Floating Points, with a rhythmic base based on Vocoder phrasing. High cadence and a rollercoaster of emotions that rises and falls mercilessly in an experimental key, closer to IDM than any other style in a narcotic sonic journey.
We are grateful to artists like Floating Points, who take us out of the usual places to make us feel very much alive in the electronic universe, where emotions are sometimes very linear.
Available now here
